Covid rules move seen as boost

Ka¯piti Mayor K Gurunathan has welcomed the Government’s decision to increase limits on the number of people who can be in indoor hospitality venues and remove limits on all outdoor gatherings.

“While it’s abundantly clear that we still need tools to keep our most vulnerable safe, relieve pressure on our health system, and manage future outbreaks or variants, this move [active since Saturday] will help some of our larger hospitality venues.

“It will also provide much-needed certainty for organisers of outdoor events, many that have been forced to postpone or move their events online as a result of the current limits on numbers under the red traffic light setting.

“Given that we are continuing to see an average of 17,000 plus reported cases of Covid-19 each day, sticking with the traffic light system and the requirement to wear masks indoors seems like a very pragmatic decision to me. As the Prime Minister said, it’s been two long years and we can expect future spikes.

“We need to shift our mindset, accept that we have a ‘new normal’, and prepare for the fact that we will have future variants.”

Gurunathan said the council’s senior leadership team would be reviewing its position on the requirement for customers to show vaccine passes on entry to its pools, libraries, service centres and community venues in light of the Government’s decision to remove vaccine mandates from April 4.

“Like I’ve said, we have a population profile that has a significant number of vulnerable people.

“Council has a responsibility to the wider community and its staff to keep everyone safe and I’m sure any decision on vaccine passes will not be taken lightly.

“This continues to be a challenging time for all of us and while we acknowledge that people are feeling anxious and fatigued, and many in our community are hurting, now more than ever we need to pull together as a community and show patience and kindness.

“We will get through this it will just take time.”